I can see this sort of thing happening. Already doctors and dentists are doing employee arrangements rather than a partnership, ownership arrangement (unrelated to Obamacare) It caused me to switch dentists. They just don't want the hassle of being business owners and want a 9-5 job. It might even be a good thing, but it does seem like it might corporatize health care.

Also, Costco has the lowest employee turnover rate in retail, partially because of high wages, and 90% of its workers qualify for, ahem, EMPLOYEE-SPONSORED HEALTH INSURANCE...when the going rate in retail is 60%. So we should be so lucky.

Well, see, if Obamacare is Costco, then the current system is better because it's like a fancy restaurant that only decent people can afford (and who prepares their own meals anyway?!). You poors are now going to be able to eat actual groceries instead of fishing through the dumpster. Why, you might even grow accustomed to it!

First, private physicians' input has not been taken into consideration. Solo practitioners have always comprised the backbone of medical practice in this country, serving their patients and helping their local communities deal with day-to-day health issues.

And we all know perfectly well how they're going to be affected by this new law. They won't be able to keep their doors open and survive on the limits that all of these regulations will create for them.

Second, patient opinions have not been properly heard or considered. In survey after survey, Americans have voiced their dislike for this radical change.

Oh, sorry. For a second I thought you were talking about the GOP's insane level of anti-abortion clinic legislation.

Also, Costco has the lowest employee turnover rate in retail, partially because of high wages, and 90% of its workers qualify for, ahem, EMPLOYEE-SPONSORED HEALTH INSURANCE...when the going rate in retail is 60%. So we should be so lucky.

You can find cool stuff in Costco that you didn't know existed, or great deals you weren't looking for...but afterwards I always have to go to a "normal" store to finish buying the stuff on my shopping list. And the stuff you did find last week may not be there this week.

Also, no one there is able to tell you whether the store has a particular item or where it might be found. I understand that is not how their business model works, but it is very inconvenient for someone who needs to buy something specific rather than cool stuff in general. All in all, a very bad metaphor for heath care.

Nuclear Monk:I'll miss that quaint little Blue Cross Blue Shield corner shop and all those handwritten "This is Not A Bill" statements.

Pretty much this, not in my entire lifetime has there been anything remotely like a "small town medical practice" anywhere I've lived in the North Eastern US, it's all group health care, clinics, hospitals and fights with insurance claims people to get my bills paid. My grandmother in Worcester had a private doctor who still made housecalls in the 1950's, but that was as close as I have ever gotten to these golden years of American medicine. My granddad died of a simple stomach infection shortly after that, an ailment that became routinely treatable only a decade after he passed, so, yeah, I vote we keep re-inventing medicine until we get to a robo-doc.

cameroncrazy1984:o5iiawah: MaudlinMutantMollusk: The greatest nation in the world brought to its knees by something every other industrialized nation on the planet has no trouble with? 80% of Europe cant afford

I_C_Weener:I can see this sort of thing happening. Already doctors and dentists are doing employee arrangements rather than a partnership, ownership arrangement (unrelated to Obamacare) It caused me to switch dentists. They just don't want the hassle of being business owners and want a 9-5 job. It might even be a good thing, but it does seem like it might corporatize health care.

I think a lot of it is inevitable given the technologies where you have to get x number of people "through the machine" (literally and figuratively) in order to not lose money on it and one doctor isn't able or doesn't want to do it all.

12349876:I_C_Weener: I can see this sort of thing happening. Already doctors and dentists are doing employee arrangements rather than a partnership, ownership arrangement (unrelated to Obamacare) It caused me to switch dentists. They just don't want the hassle of being business ownipers and want a 9-5 job. It might even be a good thing, but it does seem like it might corporatize health care.

I think a lot of it is inevitable given the technologies where you have to get x number of people "through the machine" (literally and figuratively) in order to not lose money on it and one doctor isn't able or doesn't want to do it all.

Yeah. The age of mom and pop (partnerships) is on its way out. Corporations dictating the procedures and vetoing certain actions is the future. On the plus side, things might be cheaper. And for the doctors they can concentrate on medicine not HR or advertising. Still, I like the feel of a small practice over the "We Own Our Own Ho